Fiona Kaufman

"Impressed with her ability to communicate complex legal topics to an unfamiliar audience."

"Impressed with her ability to communicate complex legal topics to an unfamiliar audience."

5.05

Clear Communication

Response Time

Knowledgeable

Meets Deadlines

out of 21 reviews

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About

Fiona Newell Kaufman is an experienced Corporate Attorney with boutique practice showcasing extensive experience working in-house for Silicon Valley High Technology companies. As a solo practitioner, her goal is to provide high quality, value-oriented legal services to publicly-traded and privately held technology-based product and service companies. In offering a full-range of 'in-house' counsel services, her focus is to address your specific legal issues in a clear, affordable and flexible `outside’ counsel basis.

Fiona Newell Kaufman graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law and for the past 14 years has focused her practice… read more on high technology and commercial transactions. She has worked as Corporate Counsel for several Silicon Valley and Forbes 500 technology companies including: Silicon Valley Bank, Ariba, Phoenix Technologies, and Solectron Corporation (currently Flextronics) prior to opening her own practice in January 2008. In addition to practicing corporate law, Ms. Kaufman is an experienced legal author with a leading national publisher, publishing many legal practice guides in the areas of technology transactions and tax and estate planning.

Ms. Kaufman focuses on the review, drafting, evaluation, and negotiation of a complete range of routine and complex technology agreements, including:

* Software License Agreements

* Master Services Agreements

* Master Purchase Agreements

* Manufacturing Agreements

* Service Level Agreements

* Statements of Work

* Vendor Agreements

* Marketing Agreements

* Purchase Terms and Conditions

* Non-Disclosure Agreements

Another key focus is providing strategic legal advice while balancing business concerns and potential risks to achieve the most positive result and this is key to understanding a client’s business needs and concerns in order to achieve the most desired result.

Client Reviews

"Fiona continues to do a great job for us. We will continue to work with her on future engagements."

Review Service Agreement
Posted on Dec 7, 2018

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"Fiona has been a great resource in helping our company draft our service agreement template. She is great to collaborate and clear in her communication. We will be working with Fiona again in the future!"

Review Service Agreement
Posted on Jun 15, 2018

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"Fiona did a great job helping our company streamline our standard service contract, identifying areas where we could minimize risk, eliminate unnecessary clauses."

Service Agreement Consultation
Posted on Dec 5, 2017

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"Fiona is a top-notch corporate attorney - concise and timely"

Posted on Dec 4, 2017

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"I enjoyed working with Fiona, very helpful!"

Review SaaS Agreement
Posted on Sep 28, 2017

Clear Communication

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"Fiona was great, For a start up founder like me doing my first enterprise service contract, she worked through a template, kept is simple and efficient and together we were able to get the contract signed in 2 weeks which is a remarkably short amount of time dealing with enterprise legal teams. She was const conscious and understood that as a start up cash i tight .She will be my go to attorney for the future."

Work History

Law Office of Fiona Newell Kaufman

Principal and Owner

Dec 2007 - Present

* Boutique law practice which provides high-quality, value-oriented legal services to both publicly traded and privately held technology-based product and services companies.
* Legal services include, reviewing, drafting and negotiating a full range of complex technology and commercial agreements, including software license agreements, open source software agreements, service agreements, purchase agreements and non-disclosure agreements.
* Complete legal research and writing along with business strategy.
* Close interaction with company personnel including management and executives.
* Support clients on an as-needed, over-flow basis, as well as on-going retainer relationships.

Solectron

Corporate Counsel

Jan 2004 - Dec 2007

* Responsible for the review, negotiation and administration of all customer contracts including manufacturing agreements, services agreements, and service level addendums.
* Provide key advice and support to senior management and sales executives on sales strategies, potential risks and courses of action.
* Created and managed global training program to educate sales and operations teams on contractual issues and contracts process.
* Developed and managed the development and implemented new contracts process, tools and guidelines to standardize contracts process and comply with SOX 404 requirements, resulting in improved operations, streamlined efficiency, and less risk of liability.

Jan 2004 - Dec 2007

Phoenix Technologies

Corporate Counsel

Jul 2001 - Dec 2002

* Drafted and negotiated commercial agreements for U.S., Asian and European Sales teams.
* Provided support to Phoenixs finance, human resources, marketing, IT, and facilities departments in the resolution of contractual, personnel, and other legal issues.
* Assisted and advised the General Counsel and key executives in the management of corporate governance issues, acquisitions and other strategic transactions.
* Designed and supervised global legal training program to educate employees on issues including licensing, contracts, copyrights, and negotiation.

Jul 2001 - Dec 2002

Ariba

Corporate Counsel

Jan 2000 - Jan 2001

* Drafted and negotiated complex software license, service, and alliance agreements for core revenue products, with a majority of customers being Fortune 1000 companies, while balancing legal, business and revenue recognition concerns, resulting in over $20 million in revenues.
* Provided on-going support to Aribas corporate, real estate, facilities and finance groups to resolve issues.
* Spearheaded committee to create standard legal processes manual to cover in-bound and out-bound licensing as well as specific issues for software, services and alliance agreements.
* Formed and maintained foreign subsidiaries and worked with outside counsel and consultants to ensure compliance with corporate formalities and tax laws in effectuating a share transfer.
* Managed relationships with outside counsel to supervise work quality and manage costs.

Jan 2000 - Jan 2001

Silicon Valley Bank

Corporate Counsel

Jan 1999 - Jan 2000

* Led legal team for International e-commerce subsidiary. Provided extensive advice and counseling on a variety of issues, including content, trademarks, data privacy, securities, and foreign law, to senior executives to define business plan and make business decisions.
* Drafted and negotiated licensing, procurement and service agreements for eProcurement teams.
* Conducted New Employee Orientation and employee trainings on compliance, securities, and contracts, to educate and increase awareness of legal and regulatory issues.
* Designed and managed a comprehensive Broker-Dealer compliance program for SVB Securities, a NASD registered Broker-Dealer, to ensure adherence to laws and regulations.
* Managed relationships with outside counsel to coordinate projects and contain costs.

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